


Birthday On The Cowboy Trail

by Elenhin



Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Birthday Party, Cowboys, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-04
Updated: 2014-03-04
Packaged: 2018-01-14 13:09:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1267630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/pseuds/Elenhin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sort of sequel to Scavenger Hunt by Aramirandme81. </p>
<p>It's Axl's birthday again, and his request is that the party is the same as the last one, but better. This might not be as easy as it sounds, so the Johnson brothers have to work to make sure to try their best. </p>
<p>What could be better than Pirates? Well, cowboys might just be good enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthday On The Cowboy Trail

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aramirandme81](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramirandme81/gifts), [SpyderzW3b](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpyderzW3b/gifts).



> Since this is rather heavily based on Scavenger Hunt, certain parts will refer directly to it, and all credit there naturally goes to Aramirandme81.
> 
> The request for Scavenger Hunt was made by SpyderzW3b, so big thanks to both Aramirandme81 and SpyderzW3b.

_** Birthday On The Cowboy Trail ** _

 

This time, it’s Valerie who brings it up as they’re having breakfast. Smiling as she puts a plate of pancakes in front of Axl and ruffling his hair. “Your birthday is next month Axl, we need to start thinking about your party.” 

 

Mike looks up from the stove where he’s seeing to the eggs and bacon, meeting Ty’s eye at the table. Anders who’s hanging back only shrugs. 

 

“Yes, party!” Axl cries, making Anders glad he’s so far away when Valerie winces. 

 

“Indoor voice Axl,” she cautions him. “Now, I saw some really sweet invitation cards in the bookstore. You could go with me to look at them after school on Monday.” 

 

“I want invitations like the ones Anders made last year,” Axl declares. 

 

“You want a pirate party this year to?” Mike asks a little hopefully. They still have some of the stuff, so it would make it easier. 

 

“No, I want something else, but I want the invitations to be all cool like last year,” he declares firmly. “It was the best party ever, everyone thought so. I want to have the best party this year too.” 

 

“I’m sure it will be,” Valerie smiles. “We can get some stickers and decorate the invitations, and I can borrow a book at the library to see if we can maybe make a few snacks, find some fun games to play.” 

 

She looks up with a glare as Anders bursts out laughing. Ty is glad for it, becuase he really likes Valerie and does not want her to see how he’s snickering. He can’t help it though, Valerie is talking about the kind of girly party that is Axl’s worst horror. 

 

“Anders, you’ve got to make them this year too,” Axl leaps from his seat, barreling into Anders who’s showed up against the wall. “You’ve got to, if it’s not as awesome as last year, Steven will never stop laughing. I don’t want store bought invitations.” 

 

“And no girly food, huh?” Mike adds with a grin. 

 

“I’ll work something out Axl, as soon as we know what you want,” Anders promises. 

 

“Do you want to decide this year, or should we come up with something?” Ty asks. Axl really likes surprises, so he’s expecting it when Axl declares that as long as they make the same promise as last year, they may plan it all so he will be free to enjoy it. 

 

“But we are bigger this year,” he declares. “Much bigger, So we need a lot more food, and much, much more cake, and lots of candy.” 

 

Mike who’s gazing at the amount of food needed for their Sunday breakfast has to agree. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure out a way to make enough to feed you all,” he declares. 

 

“Are you sure about this Axl?” Valerie frowns. 

 

“Uhu,” he bobs his head enthusiastically. “And you got to make the cake Ty, Susies mum made her a cake, but it was all burnt and funny, and she was really sad cause some said nasty things about it, and I don’t want them to do that. You gotta make a cake, and then Susie can have the first piece, after me,” he added. “And it’s got to be big.” 

 

“A big cake, and Susie gets the second piece, got it,” Ty grabbed a napkin and the pen from the shopping list to write it down, simply becuase it made Axl smile and giggle. 

 

“Any more demands your highness?” Anders had poured himself a bowl of muesli and now stood eating leaning against the wall. 

 

“An adventure,” Axl beamed. “A good adventure.” 

 

“You just had to do that,” Ty gave his brother a mock groan. 

 

“Eat now Axl, and then I can drive you over to Zeb,” Mike gives him the bacon and eggs since he has finished with the pancakes. Sunday breakfast is interesting. Axl stuffing himself with pancakes, eggs, bacon and anything else they serve. Then he’s always off to play with Zeb and for once Mike will not tell him to wash the syrup out of his hair. He will only get dirty again when he plays. Valerie is the only one who tries to keep him tidy on a Sunday. 

 

Ty will have a sturdy breakfast and then go running or something, while Anders is content with muesli and one or two pancakes before he takes off. He himself will enjoy the time with Valerie since that is a rare treat. 

 

Now though Ty and Anders are still waiting for him when he gets back from dropping Axl off, and Valerie has cleaned off the table but is writing a list of the kids in Axl’s class. 

 

“How many should we invite?” she asks him looking up. “Zeb has to come, should we say five boys and five girls?” 

 

“All of them,” Anders declares. “We invite the whole class.” 

 

“That’s a lot of children,” Valerie frowns. 

 

“We had all last year,” Ty shrugs. “And it’s really not fair to make him choose.” 

 

“Not to mention the kids who don’t get to come,” Anders states dryly. “It’s shit hearing everyone talk about the party and not being invited.”

 

“Yeah, I agree,” Mike nods. The older Johnson brothers were never really invited to parties when they were younger. 

 

“As long as we keep the kids happy and give them something to do, we can handle them,” Anders declares. 

 

“Fine,” Valerie puts the list away. “What about food then?” 

 

“Depends on the theme,” Ty shrugs. “But I’ll help with that. And Anders will help with invitations and decorations and things.” 

 

“So we make it Friday after school, like last year?” Mike muses. “And old clothes.” 

 

“Old clothes and Saturday,” Anders states firmly. “I have late classes Friday, I wouldn’t be here at all.” 

 

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” Mike sighs. “So, we did pirates last year, what can we do this year?” 

 

“Cowboys?” Ty asks carefully and Anders nods with a smile. 

 

“Cowboys,” he agrees. “I think they will all like that, and Axl and Zeb plays cowboys. Instead of the treasure hunt, we can have them follow the old pioneer trail. It will make food even easier, because barbeque will fit perfectly, so less trouble and hassle.” 

 

“Sounds doable,” Mike agress. “Any other ideas?” 

 

“Sleepover,” Anders declared. “It has to be, campfire bread, songs and stories. It wouldn’t be a cowboy party without it.” 

 

“Aren’t they a bit too young?” Valerie frowned. 

 

“I think it’s okay,” Ty decided. “And we three would be sleeping outside with them. If any wants to go inside, our beds will be free, and you’ll be in here.” 

 

“I think we could manage,” Mike had to agree. “Okay, we can start working on it I guess, see what we need exactly.

 

The others agreed, and when Axl got back he was told he was not allowed to go into Anders’ and Ty’s room unless given permission. That way, they could keep supplies and things in there. Anders set to working on the invitations. He cheated in as much as using a computer to print out and old West type font, but on somewhat thinner paper than normal, then aged it and tore it very carefully before adding some ink smudges to the print. 

 

Since the invitations was the first step Axl kept hassling Anders at least once every day about them. He demanded to know if he was working on them, if they were going to be great, and he wanted to make sure Anders brought them to him at school. 

 

“They loved it when you did, it was great,” he insisted, grabbing a hold of his t-shirt. “You have to Anders. You have to, they want you to, Zeb said he did, and the way the pirate gave them to you. You have to do it this time too, I uh, I told them you would,” he admitted. 

 

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do,” Anders agreed, then rubbed his ear at Axl’s loud shriek of delight. “If I still have any hearing left,” he mutters. 

 

Valerie actually helps him with what he needs, but on the day they are supposed to hand out the invitations it’s all they can manage to get Axl ready for school. Finally Mike has to order him saying that unless he goes, Anders won’t be able to finish them in time. By the time he has finished the sentence, Axl is standing by the car, trying to get in despite of it being locked. 

 

When they go to have their lunch, Axl is so excited he literally can’t eat. He knows Anders will come, becuase he promised. Anders would never, ever break his word, he knows this. Anders also understands that it’s important to be cool, Mike do not, so he knows Anders will make it good. He’s staring at the door and does not even notice when Zeb has finished his sandwich and starts eating Axls. 

 

Everytime the door opens Axl nearly jumps up, but it’s never Anders and he sits down with a pout. Then he hears Anders’ voice asking if it’s alright if he comes in for a few minutes. 

 

He does not even think about it, he just runs to him, to get the invitations. 

 

Anders has really only stepped into the room, about to call for Axl when he realizes that Axl is coming for him at full speed. Axl still hasn’t outgrown his overenthusiastic runaway train greeting. The one that has actually resulted into trips to the hospital, and he nearly takes a step to the side, but then Axl could get hurt, so instead he closes his eyes. 

 

The next he knows he’s flat on his back with his head spinning and Axl has his arms wrapped so tightly around his neck he can’t breath. 

 

“Axl!” their teacher comes running over just as Axl realizes Mike has cautioned him about doing this. 

 

“Sorry,” getting up he looks at Anders who tries to get his breath back with a cough. “Did you bring them? Did you get them?” 

 

“If you mean these, yes?” waving away the teacher and giving her a smile Anders grabs the cloth shoulder bag Valerie has made for him. The one he has carefully painted ‘Pony Express’ on. “Got this outside, from a cowboy, then he rode off,” he states, rubbing his back. 

 

By now the other children knows what’s up and are crowding in around him, all of them appears to be grabbing for the bag. 

 

He hands the bag off to Axl who runs back to the table, and then makes his escape before his brother can ‘hug’ him again. Perhaps he should have made Ty take them…. 

 

Axl opens the buckle on the bag, digging out a heap of rolled up paper. They are tied together with a thin string of leather, and when unrolled proves to be a wanted poster. The paper sure looks like it’s been hanging on a wall. It’s torn as if it’s been nailed to the wall and torn off, and they all have ink smudges in different spots. 

 

Their individual names are on the posters, so there is some hassle to get the right one, and instead of the ‘dead or alive’ it says they’re wanted at Axl’s party.   
  
Axl couldn’t be happier with it, even if Mike scolds him lightly when he gets home. He is smiling and ruffles his hair, so Axl knows he’s not mad, but he still tells him that no matter how happy he is about the invitations, he’s not allowed to hug Anders. Telling him that he’s still sore from the hugging at school. He wants to hug him, becuase he really is very, very happy, but when they come in Anders is keeping Ty in front of him. Actually holding him in front of him like a shield, a laughing one. So Axl can’t really, not until it’s bedtime. Then when Anders says goodnight Axl hugs him as hard as he can, even if he groans and complaints. 

 

“Thank you Anders,” Axl whispers before he drifts off asleep. 

 

  
  
Since the party begins on a Saturday this time, they are dropped off by their parents one by one, Mike stowing away their bags for the time being. They are putting them in Anders’ and Ty’s room, he’s already put a couple of mattresses on the floor, in case some of the kids will be wanting to go inside to sleep. This time a lot of them are dressed according to the theme. There are even a few felt cowboy hats. Several of the boys are dressed in plaid shirts, and most of them are wearing old stained jeans with holes and patches. Two of the girls are wearing worn cotton sun dresses. Axl is wearing jeans and shirt and a vest Valerie made for him for the party. 

 

When everyone has arrived Anders joins them, and Axl beams as he sees him. Anders, who is always the first one to wash is now dirty. He is really, really dirty. His face is and hands are smudged with dirt. He really looks kind of disgusting in shabby old clothes. He’s got a pair of Mike’s old boots, covered in mud, and the sole has been torn loose on one so that it’s flapping when he walks. He’s got a pair of torn ragged trousers with a lot of patches, and they’re held up by braces. His shirt too is dirty and torn. To top it, he’s got what looks like a real coonskin cap on his head and Axl can’t help but grin. It’s amazing. 

 

“Hey y’all,” he greets them cheerfully and loud giggles breaks out. “Well, I’m glad y’all could make it, look like we finally got some cowboys can tell one end of the cow from the other.” 

 

Again the giggles breaks out and Mike has to smile, at least Anders is good at handling kids. 

 

“Just one thing missing I reckon,” Anders carries on. “Y’all can’t do this without horses.” 

 

“We don’t have any,” someone pouts. 

 

“I’m too small,” a girls agrees. 

 

“I went on the pony ride,” a second one chimes in. 

 

“Well, there are horses for everyone in the stable,” Anders gestures to the garage. Mike has done the rough work on the horses. He’s cut the heads out of wood, and painted them, but the kids get to decorate them and make tackle out of string. 

 

There is a lot of giggling and laughing as they do this, and those who can’t fit around the table to work on the horse gets to cut a bandana out of an old sheet. 

 

Anders waits patiently until everyone has finished, then they gather in front of the house. 

 

“Alright, listen up y’all,” he starts. “We’re gonna see if we can make our way to the new settlement now, like true pioneers, so, Axl will get a map, and we follow him. Y’all need to be very careful though, this is mighty dangerous country, wild an’ untamed. An’ there’s rattlers and buffalo an’ all kinds of nasty critters, so y’all need to be careful.” 

 

“Are there gonna be any Indians?” someone piped up and Anders nodded. 

 

“There are Indians here, yeah,” he confirms. “But most of the tribes are friendly, and we got an Indian scout with us to be on the safe side. So we’ll be alright, I reckon,” he looks up to see Ty approach. His costume is quite impressive, made from a pair of Mike’s old work trousers but with fringes added along the whole length of the leg. He’s bare chested and with leather straps decorated with beads tied around his upper arms. Valerie has made a headpiece as well, but even as Anders watches a few feathers falls off to flutter to the ground. “There he is, brave Dropping Feathers,” he smiles and Ty sends him a half hearted glare. 

 

He stands in front of them, folding his arms across his chest. They couldn’t make any moccasins, so he’s barefoot instead, and raises one hand, “how.” he greets them. 

 

“Wow, a real Indian,” Julia breaths and Axl giggles. 

 

“Yes, me real Indian,” Ty confirms. “Me be brave Dropping Feathers,” he gives Anders a light scowl. “And me be your guide. Me and old friend trapper here.” He gave Anders a bright smile. “When Indian brave meet white man, and like him, they give him name, Indian name. Me named this one, Trapper  Andy gets lost a lot…” 

 

Anders gave a half amused, half offended snort while Axl could hardly stand for laughing. The rest of the children taking their cue from him. 

 

Axl had the map and took a moment to study it. It wasn’t quite like the pirate map. It was drawn with pencil on a sheet of brown wrapping paper as Anders explained it would have been handed to one trapper from another. There are still some funny names, like Rattlesnake Creek, and Bear-head Pass. There is a rock that looks like a bear head on the map, and Anders tells them that there is a lot of rattlesnakes by the creek. 

 

The map leads them to the park and Ty, as the Indian scout keeps checking out the trail ahead, warning them when they come to a land slide across the path and they have to cut through bushes. Anders had tried to get Ty to tell them a few stories, but winds up having to do it anyway. Apparently Axl is not the only one who demands that it be just like last year. 

 

At one place in the park a pioneer woman sits, and Axl beams and waves, barely containing himself from running up to hug Valerie. 

 

“Hi there children,” she greets them. At the start she had not been sure about this, but she can’t deny that Axl is smiling and obviously enjoying himself. She’s heard the children through the park, but to her surprise no arguments. She had expected there would be several, but the closest is that several of the children wants to hold the trapper and the indian by the hand as they walked. The same children who argues about being too old in school apparently are not so now. 

 

Now they all greet her, beaming and sitting down in the grass in front of her. Anders goes behind Valerie to bring a bucket of water with a dipper in it. 

 

“Pays to mark the water on the map,” he smiles. “Y’all had better drink, no telling if the next one is all dried up, or worse, poisoned.” 

 

“What if that is?” a girl demands. 

 

“Don’t reckon it is, but to be safe, we test it first,” Anders shrugs, he dips his hand into the water, sniffed it, then holds the dipper out to Ty who shrugs and takes a drink. 

 

“Water an’ buffaloo jerky,” Anders grins as he takes a cloth bag from his pocket, passing out bits of jerky. It’s really Jack Links, but they don’t have to know that. It’s to make sure they don’t  get dehydrated or cranky from hunger. 

 

While they have the small snack Valerie is showing them how to make some small cloth bags. Something she tells them might come in handy. 

 

They do later when they come to Rattlesnake Creek. 

 

“Now y’all, if ya hear a rattle, ya stand still,” Anders tell them. “Might be some snake around.” 

 

“Yes,” Ty nods. “Be careful, let fool trapper go first, make sure,” Axl giggles as Anders goes down to the water. He reaches behind a bush where they have left some plastic plates and takes one. 

 

“Trappers did more than just catch animals, some’d be looking for gold,” he tells them. The bottom of the creek is sand and he scoops some up with the plate, swirling it around. “Now, if ya wanna find some gold, this would be how ya did it. Get some water an’ some sand in the pan, kinda slosh it around. Gold’s heavier, so it’ll stay in the pan even when the sand goes sloshing out.” Ty hands out the plates so they can try which they do with a lot of enthusiasm and splashing. He’s quite glad they decided against making moccasins when he goes into the water. Anders when he steps out into the creek gets his boots full, it might pour out of the broken one but he can tell Anders doesn’t like it much. The things Anders will do for Axl never quite ceases to amaze Ty. 

 

They compare how much gold each of them has found, making sure they are about even. Then Anders and Ty help those who hasn’t been able to find quite as much. Zeb has done quite good and shares some with Axl while Ty helps Steven who’s having trouble holding the plate right. Anders has bought the paint they used, making sure it would be safe to put the tiny stones back into the creek after they were painted. 

 

By then the children were starting to wear down so Ty helped Axl with the map, getting on the right track back to the house. Once more the backyard was decorated. The picnic table had a sign over it with ‘Trading Post,’ painted on it in crude letters. 

 

An old bathtub from the house Mike is renovating has been painted to look like wood and stands in for a water through. It’s leaking a little, so there is a mud puddle under it. Valerie had not been fond of that idea, but Ty pointed out it was added safety for the barbeque and the fire since it meant they would have water ready at hand. Anders had helped Mike make the hitching post that’s in front of it. It never ceased to amuse Mike what Anders would be willing to do if it was for Axl. Normally he did not touch tools if he could avoid it, now he had worked quite hard on it. Though Ty had had to help him remove several splinters from his hands afterwards. 

 

“Y’all can tie up your ponies over there,” Anders motioned to the hitching post now, making the kids laugh as they dutifully tied their horses to the post. Making sure they could all reach the water on his urging. 

 

Anders was beaming as he nodded to the trading post where Valerie stood. “Y’all probably know this, but the trading posts were like stores for the pioneers an’ the trappers an’ them. Whatever ya had, ya could go there an’ trade it for what ya needed.” 

 

“Me would take trapper over there, trade him in for something useful,” Ty beamed happily. “Maybe me get dog for trapper?” 

 

Anders turned to scowl at him and Mike sighed. It wouldn’t be the first time Anders and Ty had started out working together only to start fighting. This time however Anders was satisfied with scowling. 

 

“If ya wanna trade yer gold in, I reckon ya could git something fer it,” Anders stated instead. 

 

“But I wanna keep it, I fished it out, I don’t wanna give it all away,” a little girl sniffed. The others joined in and Mike sighed. The idea that they traded their ‘gold’ for bags of treats had been Ty and Anders that came up with, but the children were apparently more attached to the yellow stones than they had imagined and he was about to suggest they simply gave them to them when Anders knelt down in front of the girl who had just about started crying. 

 

“Don’t worry,” he told her softly. “Why don’t we just go over there, an’ we just see what you could get huh? You got lots of gold, and it’s worth a lot, so I don’t think you’d have to trade in so very much, and if you don’t want to, you don’t have to do it at all. Shall we just see, huh?”

 

She gives a small nod, so Anders lifts her up to sit on his hip and takes her over to Val. She’s got an old scale she borrowed from school, and puts one of the smallest weighs on it, while Anders helps the girl pour out a little of the ‘gold’ on the other side. It hardly takes any to tip the scale, and once she gets too look into the bag she agrees to part with that much of the gold. 

 

Once the other sees that there is marshmallows and chocolate in the bags, with crackers and some other bits of sweets. Even a portion pack of hot chocolate powder, then they all quite willingly agree to give up a little bit of gold. 

 

While Anders help them negotiate with Valerie, Ty and Mike has ample time to get the food ready. No table cloths, or even tables. They sit on logs on the ground around the firepit. Paper plates heaped full and mugs sitting on the ground beside them. There is some spillage from overturned mugs, and the occasional overturned plate as well. 

 

Valerie had been hesitant about this, but they had insisted and she has to admit that cleaning up will be easy. Even so she can’t help but smile when one of the boys is returning to his seat after a refill only to stumble and drop all of it in Anders lap. She would have expected Anders to get annoyed, but he does not. He just makes sure the boy is okay, then sends him back to Mike. She does smile though when she sees the disgusted look on his face as he tries to clean off. 

 

The children are stuffing themselves, so much so that Valerie isn’t even sure if they will be wanting to play games. She is used to children that age being picky eaters who demands it to be just right. Not tearing into everything and licking the plates clean. The only child she has really seen do that is Axl, though Zeb can put away a lot for being so small and skinny. Ty was always a more moderate eater who was surprisingly much into healthy food for one so young. Something that pleased her and made it a lot easier for her to connect to him. Anders had been the hardest, never eating, then making up excuses that he was intolerant to the things she knew he simply did not want to eat. It was a shame when Axl and Ty were such good boys. 

 

Axl was certainly having a good time now, even if they were too full to play. Still picking at the last scraps on their plates they headed over to where Anders and Ty were, demanding to be told stories about the pioneers. While they listened to the stories Mike walked around amongst them with a garbage bag to collect all the plates, smiling as he too listened with half an ear. 

 

He had to say that for Anders, it wasn’t just the kids, even Ty was giving his brother his wide eyed attention as he listened. 

 

Then Ty took over when a few of them started getting restless, it was time to play games and Ty and he were a lot better at that. 

 

For a short time there Anders wasn’t sure if they would even stop playing long enough to eat the cake, but once Valerie brought it out they were on it like vultures and Anders could very well picture someone losing a hand. 

 

The cake was big, and decorated with cream in different colours, and with plastic cowboys and indians arranged across it, but so that every piece would have at least one figure on it. Axl was given the knife, and with only a little help cut out a large piece for himself and a second one for Susie, then Axl wanted to start eating and declared that the rest of them could fend for themselves. Mike however stepped in to help, glad  that they had enough cake even the adults could have a piece right away. There wasn’t any leftovers though, and he hadn’t expected any. Instead Ty and Valerie had made a smaller cake as well that they would have the next day to celebrate with just the family. 

 

It was amazing really, but even after having stuffed themselves with the barbeque and the cake, the kids were shouting for the smores and for the hot dogs they heard Ty mention. They did agree to play one more game while they waited for the fire to die down sufficiently, then they demanded their late night snack. 

 

Mike helped them get their hot dogs on the sticks, while Ty and Anders would help them cook them. Ty grabbing one for himself while he worked but Anders refusing. If he could not cook it properly the way he wanted it he would rather be hungry. Axl pretty much just showed his first one too the fire before he started eating it, but he allowed the next one too cook just a little longer. 

 

Zeb was more patient and appeared to have figured out that it tasted better fully cooked. 

 

By the time Mike and Anders had the time to make their own hot dogs, they could tell the kids were wearing out. Ty, who had eaten while he helped them started clearing up while Mike and Anders got a couple of hot dogs each, then they sent the kids in to wash. Valerie was in charge of helping them in the bathroom while the boys helped them arrange the sleeping bags. Mike had hung a couple of tarps to be like a half open tipi. He couldn’t make it big enough to be a proper tipi and still fit all of them in, but as it is they have shelter and it’s a warm night so they don’t really need it. Just the same Mike has decided they will keep the fire going through the night, and the lights on in the hallway. With someone awake to guard the fire they will also be awake if one of the kids needs something. Ty will be first, and will wake up Anders, then Anders will wake Mike as it’s usually the hardest in the morning. That way Ty who is the youngest gets the easiest watch. Mike has the best sleeping bag though so he’s given it to Anders while he’s using Ty’s who has the second best one. Anders isn’t much for camping, so there was no point in getting him a really good one, but at the same Mike do not want him to freeze now. He’s quite impressed that Anders hasn’t voiced one word of complaint. 

 

Valerie has washed an endless amount of hands and faces to get rid of every last trace of hot dogs and marshmallows, when someone asks about rattlesnakes. Suddenly the Indian and the trapper has to shake out every single sleeping bag to make sure there are no rattlesnakes in them. 

 

Since it’s Anders and Ty doing it there’s also a bit of acting there with Anders shaking one, giving a cry and jumping back as Ty takes off chasing the snake. 

 

Mike kisses Valerie goodnight, then lies down next to Axl as Anders is telling them all a campfire story of the old west. He can see them fall asleep one by one, and not even he can resist it. Perhaps it’s a good thing Ty was getting more wood and not really listening to the story. 

 

When Anders wakes him he finds out that not one single kid has woken and wanted to go inside. A lot of them has moved though and are crowding around where he and Ty slept. Axl and Zeb has gone far enough to use him for pillow, Ty having put one arm around Axl and the other around Zeb. 

 

Anders lies down on the sleeping bag, but Mike can tell he’s not ready to fall asleep. 

 

“I think we can handle it here,” he muses as he looks between the fire and the kids. “You can go inside to sleep if you want to.” 

 

“No, I’m okay,” Anders shrugs. 

 

“Sleeping outside isn’t your thing Anders, it’s fine, you’ve done good today,” Mike does not give praise often, but he really is proud over the way both Ty and Anders has been working for Axl. 

 

“I promised Axl I’d sleep out here,” Anders admits with a small wince. “Or, rather, I promised him I wasn’t gonna chicken out and go inside. He said I would, and I said I wouldn’t.” 

 

“It’s not always easy to be tough,” Mike grins. “That’s when it sucks to be a big brother.” 

 

“Don’t I know it,” Anders rolled over. 

 

“Try to sleep,” Mike softened his voice just a little. “If you’re cold, there are plenty of blankets.” 

 

“Not cold, just don’t like it,” Anders stated and Mike chuckled. He was very well aware that Anders did not like it. He also knew that Anders would be exhausted in the morning from lack of sleep and not much good for helping to clean stuff up. Which was why he intended to put him in charge of the kids. They’d all be tired, so Anders could tell them stories and that should keep them calm until their parents came to collect them. 

 

Getting them up wasn’t much of a problem at least, as soon as Mike started the breakfast they started climbing out of their sleeping bags one by one. Ty gets up with a big grin as he sees Zeb and Axl. Anders is slower and with a red nose that tells Mike is has been just a bit cold for him. 

 

Valerie has made a large pot of porridge in the kitchen while Mike has seen to frying up eggs and bacon over the fire. Ty helps them make the rest of the campfire bread and it’s enough to fill them all up. 

 

Axl is beaming, and not only becuase one of the last things to do is opening the presents, but becuase everyone has had so much fun and are already asking him what will happen next year. 

 

Mike who is just waiting for the parents to come pick them up so they can clear it all away can’t help but feel a small sense of dread. 

 

What are they going to do next year? 

 

** The End **

Please comment, the cricket is hungry.....

 

 

  
  



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